Some groups reserving judgment on plan
SACRAMENTO — A local senator’s proposal for affordable health care for all California residents has received preliminary approval from the state legislature, but officials won’t know how much it will cost until next year.
State Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D- Santa Monica) has authored a health bill that was approved by the California Senate in July and aims to provide quality, affordable medical care to be administered by the state in an effort to help stabilize rising health care costs.
The next phase of the plan is to develop a more in-depth financial analysis of what users will pay in premiums.
Sen. Kuehl said she has served for 10 years in legislative health committees and has been disappointed by the “piecemeal” approach that’s been taken to address the state’s struggling health care system.
“I was approached by the advocates of a single-payer system with a really good initial study in hand about the feasibility of such a plan,” Sen. Kuehl said. “I agreed to be the author and begin to develop the bill for adoption.
“What we hope to accomplish is a comprehensive benefits package at an affordable premium for every person in California.”
Sen. Kuehl’s California Health Insurance Reliability Act (CHIRA) is based on the model analyzed in a new study authored by John Sheils and Randall A. Haught of the Lewin Group, a firm with 18 years of experience in health care cost analysis.
According to the Lewin Group, the state could achieve universal coverage while actually reducing total health spending for California by about $8 billion in the first year alone. CHIRA would replace the current system of multiple public and private insurers with a single insurance plan that would save $20 billion in administrative costs.
Several local groups have heard about the bill and support it. Some, such as the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, have been briefed on the bill but have held off taking a position on it.
Kathy Dodson, the chamber’s president and CEO, said the chamber’s board of directors will likely take a stance on the bill — once it knows how much it will cost employers.
“That’s one of the reasons you can’t take an educated stance on it yet, because you don’t know what you’re taking an educated stance on,” Dodson said.
Such concerns were expected, however, according to Sara Rogers, who works in Sen. Kuehl’s office. Now that the legislature appears to be supporting the bill, a more detailed financial analysis will be done. That analysis will become public when the Senate discusses it, expected to take place early next year, Rogers said.
According to Rogers, part of the reason such reform is being seriously considered now is because the United States, although known to pay twice as much per person for health care, is ranked 37th among nations in terms of its effectiveness, according to a recent World Health Organization report.
“What we hope to accomplish is a comprehensive benefits package at an affordable premium for every person in California,” Rogers said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 16, 2005. Read the original PDF.